79% Want Police Misconduct Investigated by Independent Agencies

In most jurisdictions, local police departments typically conduct internal investigations of police officer shooting and misconduct complaints.[1] However, 79% of Americans would prefer that an “outside law enforcement agency take over the investigation” when an officer is suspected of criminal wrongdoing. Alternatively, 21% favor police departments conducting internal investigations of their own officers.

The proposal to have outside investigations of misconduct, rather than internal department investigations, enjoys broad public support. Overwhelming majorities across demographics and partisan groups, including majorities of blacks (82%), whites (81%), Hispanics (66%), Republicans (76%), independents (77%), and Democrats (83%), all favor outside investigations and prosecutions of officers accused of misconduct.

The Cato Institute/YouGov national survey of 2000 adults was conducted June 6–22, 2016 using a sample drawn from YouGov’s online panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. YouGov uses a method called sample matching, and restrictions are put in place to ensure that only the people selected and contacted by YouGov are allowed to participate. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is +/-3.19 percentage points. The full report can be found here, toplines results can be found here, full methodological details can be found here.